Published on: December 7, 2016

G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital, Coimbatore, hosted a public consultation programme on the 17th of November, 2016, to discuss the new End of Life care bill proposed by Government of India. Dr Nandini Vallath, Consultant, Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences, represented Pallium India at the event.

There were presentations from experts in the field, followed by a discussion wherein the public raised questions and received clarifications on end of life care and the proposed bill. The feedback and opinions received from this program will be sent to the Ministry of Health.

The programme concluded with the general agreement that a law regulating medical interventions for the terminally ill is most essential but inappropriate in its current form, and that India requires a clear, humane and meaningful law to protect the terminally ill patients from distressful and undignified dying, and make access to appropriate care available and accessible; and enable doctors to facilitate appropriate decision making in the terminal stages of life and also be able provide end of life care.